Our band is going to be playing a talent show in early Febuary. We are going to be playing in a small/medium gym with about 700/800 people. We'd like to know other people's opinions on how the sound would be...Here is our set list, for our P.A. The Imperial is going to be wired at a 4 ohm load of 700 watts.

Any comments, good or bad....Will be highly appreciated. And we want to know if this set up will be good enough for a medium sized gym...And if anyone has experienced anything similiar to what we are trying to do. We are a beginning metal band, and we want to know what we have to do, to sound great through our P.A

Is this a one-off gig like (1) show or is this going to be a permanent gig PA?

If this is a one off I would build lots of Decware approved bass traps and stack them (2) high in each corner if possible if this is in a club or lounge. Soaking up bass nodes and getting rid of pockets and nulls will give your bass response such a killer sound and even pressure the entire crowd will be blown away from the sheer impact, audibility and musicality of the mid/low-end bass. Keep in mind that many people have never heard this before so hearing it will blow there mind and most likely bring them to tears in tension relief from a pair of Imperials or Imperial SO's.

This alone might reward you with such initial first impressions that you might be remembered. If that happens and you get chosen for further audition then build on your trademark(killer sound) and put lots into getting them more of what they heard the first time. I would talk to Steve Deckert about building a all tube triode amp, I absolutely loved the sound Steve got in the mid/bass of his SE34-I model amp in true triode. That particular voicing of the EL34 pentode coupled with SS rectification had excellent snap and harmonic attack. I would love to hear what Deckert could do with a KT88.

The best thing to have onboard in a hideous sounding gymnasium is a variable notch filter. I have an older UREI product with 5 bands, up to 18dB cut and 1/8 octave bandwidth that will tame most annoying reverb frequencies. Usually getting the worst 2 or 3 under control will fix a gym.The UREI is no longer made, but the idea is common and I'm sure modern products are widely available. An RTA with pink noise also helps to set your 1/3 octave equalizer.A gym with solid concrete walls and wooden floor can sound great!

Ok, thanks for the advice...But how do you think it will sound?It will be used basically one time for a big crowd, and numerous times for smaller crowds...Do you think it will be big enough and loud enough for about 750 people...and will it shake the ground?lol

When I have done it, it has been in a single basketball court sized gym; here is my experience:

850 watts into 98db/1w 1m speakers for mids and highs is more than enough.2400 watts into a pair of folded horn subwoofers was enough. (They were weak peavey DJ speakers)

Do you have a snake? Your soundman needs to be out in the room to hear what the room is doing to the mix.

To minimize wall reflections, your 15” speakers and horns should be angled down at the audience.

Do you only have 1 amplifier?

Bridging the Behringer amplifier against your imperial should be adequate bass. [I am not being mean, gyms are a pain to fill with bass, no matter how much power I had, it always felt lacking.] Make sure to use the clip limiter and 30hz low cut filter on the amplifier.

Depending on how you are going to run your 15” speakers and Horns, you should be good.

Where is this show going to be? It would be impressive to hear a bass imperial in action.

I have been running my imperial as a sub in a gymnasium for about a year. I built the imperial to plans with the 15" goldwood and peavey. I run 2 15" communities with 2" horns and a single imperial 15". I run the communities off one side of a Phonic 2500 (the same specs as the Behinger 2500) with monitors on the other side. The Imperial I have bridged on another Phonic 2500 at 4 ohms. There are windows on one side of the gym and I have had them rattleling pretty good. Everyone that see the imperial asks what is it? I have tried it in on the edge of the stage and along one wall, I found that you get more bass along the wall. If you can I would get another 2500 amp if you could. As stated earlier if you can get a snake and put soundman in middle of room.

I had amazing improvements in bass when I turned my Imperial around so it fired into the corner. Better results with the Imperial SO than with the standard Imperial, but still a marked improvement with the standard Imperial (used as a sub). Hopefully you will have time to try this kind of thing during setup. If you can't get a corner I would suspect you might see a slight gain if you just turn the Imperial around so its a foot or 2 away from a wall. It also seems to add more than just a 3-6 db increase in volume...its that increase in volume with no additional power that gives you something special, like the system doesn't have to work so hard to make the bass...effortless bass. Note that I saw no improvement when the Imperial was placed in the corner facing out, only when turned around and playing into the corner.